The shortened July 4 Holiday trading week began on Wednesday with a 31 cent gain over the extended weekend gain in the Arkansas 2016 Soybean Cash Market. Trading opened at a statewide average of $9.59, 68 cents over the previous Monday average. Price then moved higher each trading day before closing on Friday at a statewide average of $9.84, 56 cents above the previous Friday closing mark (Figure 1). High daily individual market price of the past week was observed on Friday as three markets broke through the $10.00 price level. Old Town/Elaine led the group with a $10.06 average daily price. Low quote for the week was found at Wynne on Wednesday with an average of $9.43. End-of-the-week reported quotes on Friday showed prices ranging from a low of $9.63 at Wynne to the high of $10.06 at Old Town/Elaine. The extreme ending quotes covered a range of 43 cents, a 1 cent widening compared to the previous week closing spread.

The Arkansas 2017 Soybean Cash Market enjoyed even greater benefits than the 2016 Old Crop Market over the extended July 4 Holiday weekend. Trading opened on Wednesday at $9.83, 39 cents over the previous Friday closing price and an even 80 cents above the previous Monday. Price in the 2017 crop market also posted gains on each of the trading days and reached a Friday closing statewide average of $10.03, the first daily average above $10.00 since early March (Figure 2). High daily individual market price of the past week was observed on Friday with Helena at $10.18. Low quote for the week was seen on Wednesday at Jonesboro and Des Arc with each having an average of $9.66. End-of-the-week quotes saw the Friday closing day prices ranging from a low of $9.88 at Jonesboro and Des Arc to the high of $10.18 at Helena. The ending quotes represented a range of 30 cents, a 5 cent narrowing from the previous week closing range.

June trading in old crop (2016) soybeans began the month with a 10 cent fall from the last May trading day price. Overall, the market then strengthened through the first two weeks, reaching a statewide average high of $9.27 on June 9 and $9.26 on June 16. A sharp decline began on June 20 and dropped price to an $8.89 low on June 22 and 23 before rallying to the monthly high of $9.28 on June 30 to close the month (Figure 3). The old crop market opened June 1 at $8.94. The June 30 last trading day average of $9.28 left the market with an overall gain of 28 cents for the month. The high individual daily market quote occurred on June 30 with Osceola at $9.51. The low individual daily market quote occurred on June 22 with Wynne at $8.71. The overall statewide average for the month was $9.10 for old crop soybeans, a 32 cent decline compared to May.

Trading in new crop (2017) soybeans moved similar to old crop (2016) beans for June, but with a somewhat greater variation (Figure 4). The new crop market opened on May 1 at $9.09 and moved higher until reaching $9.38 on June 9. The market retreated and recovered for ten days before beginning a decline after June 19. The daily losses dropped the market to a monthly low of $9.00 on June 23 before posting an ending rally that pushed the statewide average to its monthly high daily average of $9.44 on June 30. The high individual daily market quote occurred on June 30 with Osceola at $9.62. The low individual daily market quote occurred at both Des Arc and Jonesboro on June 23 with a price of $8.83. Overall statewide average for the month was $9.22, a decline of 24 cents from the overall May 2017 average.